Search Results for: Russia

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE EUROPEAN Union (EU) has frozen its partnership and cooperation negotiations with Russia over the Georgia conflict, just three months after the talks were launched following long delays. An emergency meeting of the EU Council of Ministers has ordered no meetings will take place with Moscow on the agreement until its "troops have withdrawn to the positions held prior to 7 August", prior to its short war with Georgia.…

BY MARK ROWE

THE RUSSIAN fishing fleet is to undergo the greatest restructuring of the industry since the end of the Soviet Union in 1991. Under the plans, which were approved by the Russian parliament – or Duma – this summer, a new, unifying state fishery corporation will have centralised control for all activities related to the industry.…

BY MONIKA HANLEY

GONE are the days of the disgruntled, Soviet style Baltic States truck driver, more interested in taking time off than pushing for more deliveries. Since the fall off communism and the coming of independence to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, a new breed of truckers has come on to the scene, with new trucks and more ambitious attitudes, including the desire to drive west.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE BULGARIAN prime minister Sergei Stanishev has dug the first sod to launch the construction of the country’s second nuclear power plant at Belene. The aim is to see the Euro 4 billion 2,000 MW plant operational by 2014.…

BY STEVEN SWINDELLS

THE SOUTH African government is implementing a new state support plan for the local vehicle manufacturing industry as local car sales slump amid the country’s economic downturn.

It has approved the new Automotive Production and Development Programme (APDP) to replace the Motor Industry Development Programme (MIDP) which has been in place since 1995, promoting investment while protecting South African manufacturers with tariffs.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE G8 group of major economic powers has collectively promised to increase their contributions to help clean up the Chernobyl nuclear complex by Euro 62 million. The money from Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Russia, the USA and the European Union will help complete a storage facility for more than 20,000 spent fuel assemblies generated during the operation of Chernobyl units 1-3

ENDS…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE THAILAND Tobacco Monopoly (TTM) has sets its sights on securing export markets in eastern Europe, planning to launch new brands in the region, with a special focus on Poland and Russia. Looking to offset declines in sales in the Thai domestic market, the state-owned trading company noted that cigarette trading restrictions were weaker in parts of eastern Europe than in Thailand.…

BY MARK ROWE

FOLLOWING the extended frenzy that saw multinational companies move into eastern Europe in the 1990s and early 2000s, several markets in the region are approaching the maturity of western Europe. And while Russia lags behind in general terms, the micro-economies of Moscow and St Petersburg are similarly saturated by high-end brands and developed consumer choice and tastes.…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE HEADS of government of the European Union (EU) have backed a USA-Russia global nuclear non-proliferation initiative, making detailed pledges.

These came in a communiqué issued following the June 19-20 EU summit in Brussels. It said the EU and its member states agreed Moscow and Washington’s Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism "corresponds with [EU] strategy…"

As a result, EU member governments made promises to tighten up nuclear material security including:

*Improving accounting, control and physical protection systems for nuclear and other radioactive materials and substances and enhancing the security of civilian nuclear facilities;

*Boosting their capacity to detect nuclear and other radioactive materials and substances to prevent illicit trafficking;

*Increasing their capability to search for, confiscate, and control unlawfully held nuclear or other radioactive materials and devices; and

*Ensuring their national laws "provide for…appropriate criminal and, if applicable, civil liability for terrorists and those who facilitate acts of nuclear terrorism".…

BY KEITH NUTHALL

THE POLITICAL map of Europe these days looks very blue. Most of it (discounting Russia) is part of the European Union (EU) and those countries that have yet to join are increasingly the odd men out.

The European Commission and its fellow EU institutions are keen on some of these countries becoming members and less keen on others, but the countries that are almost destined to join the EU (if they want to) are those surrounded by EU territory.…